China didn’t let the Georgian with a flag to Himalayas

2010-09-23 18:26

The feast of friendship and fortitude, which the international alpinist expedition to the world top, the magnificent Himalayas, was expected to become, has turned into an unforeseen and utterly humiliating embarrassment for one of the participants, Georgian parliamentarian Gia Tortladze. Chinese authorities denied visa to the experienced sportsman who has more than once conquered the peak of the Earth, Chomolungma. They explained it by the fact that the 50-year-old alpinist had no diplomatic passport on him.

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"I was denied visa and thus I was morally and materially hurt. I demand explanations from Chinese Embassy in Georgia why they didn't let me to Tibet!" - stated Gia Tortladze who is heading the Strong Georgia fraction of the Georgian parliament.

However, being the leader of a political movement with such a high-flown name, Tbilisi delegate failed to know the nuances of diplomatic environment. By the way, Tortladze intended to climb to the Himalayan eight-thousand-meter mountain Cho-Oya (it is this 8201-meter peak that the international expedition participants planned to conquer) not as a sportsman but as a politician. The leader of Strong Georgia was going to turn the feast of friendship and sports into a political manifestation by popping a flag with a "Georgia without occupation" inscription on one of the Earth's highest peaks being part of the Chomolungma massif.

Talking the dry diplomatic language, the Sakartvelo parliamentarian was going to perform unfriendly actions in the territory of the People's Republic of China in respect of a third party, Russian Federation. Allowing such a provocative act would mean finding itself in the center of a political scandal for Beijing. This prospect is hardly welcomed by the Communist Party of China in the context of the grand Russian-Chinese plans as to the development of natural resources of East Siberia and Far East.

Just yesterday, perhaps, the minute the unhappy Georgian parliamentarian-alpinist, on learning about The Heavenly Empire's authorities denial of visa, was making his emotional statements addressed at P.R.C.' Embassy in Tbilisi, Russian Vice Prime Minister Igor Sechin in Chinese Tianjin was taking part in the ceremony of laying the first stone in the basement of the future oil refinery, a joint venture of Rosneft and CNPC, which initial investments are estimated at five billion dollars. The distinguished guest from Moscow would hardly be happy to learn about the Georgian politicians' demarche. The history of Chinese civilization numbers five thousand years, so the nuances of diplomatic politesse are perfectly clear to those in Tiananmen Square.